Peak last night

by Jamie Dillon


At Ranger Row it was Joe Bob, Ranger Derek, Nilesh Shah and me. Yes, here I was getting ready to pack up and hit the road, the phone rang and it was my buddy Nilesh, calling from Sunnyvale and going, "Hey Jamie, you still going up to the Peak tonight?"

We were solid observing buddies for years, then Nilesh and his wife Minal moved to San Diego. They live in Irvine now, still pretty damn far away.

As you might imagine, we had a big ole time last night. Joe Bob and Nilesh had heard plenty about each other but never met. They both got to meet Derek, who had time to stick around, talk scifi and take in the sights. We went on a sky tour from M101 thru the Sagittarius Starcloud to Jupiter and generally all over. Mr Shah hadn't been out with a telescope in some 3 years, letting work have way too much leeway.

We caught up with the Crescent Nebula. Just looked and found my notes on the first time I saw this really interesting Wolf-Rayet shell, ngc 6888 in Cygnus, very close to 6 years ago at Coe ...

>First tried at CalStar, 30 Sept 00. Looked right at it and it wasn't >home (unfiltered). Coe, 16 June 01 with Nilesh showing off the hop, >pretty, off kite of stars. Graceful arc.

And yes it still looks best thru an OIII filter. We also spent a bunch of time studying the Swan. It must be summer. M17 is one of the objects that look real good thru an Ultrablock, same as a UHC.

On Jupiter, there was a dark compact swirl just about south of the GRS, which was transiting. Wondering if that swirl is Junior.

While all this eye candy stuff was going on, Joe Bob was plowing thru the AL PN project, knocking down planetaries left and right. The LM last night stayed around 5.9, decent. Seeing was 4/5. Light occasional breezes, pleasant temps, cloudless sky. Ron Dammann ambled down from the Observatory a couple times to shoot the breeze and mooch views. He told us they'd been looking at Omega Centauri earlier with FPOA's 16". Lah dee dah.

Got one new object, a galaxy right in the middle of the Finnish triangle in Bootes! Izar is the bright star in the middle of the triangle, eps Boo. Just NW of Izar are two fairly bright stars, that point right to 5653, a lumpy oval with a moderately bright core, fairly distant at 160 mly. Remembered Linebarger and Wagner one summer night at Bumpass, having a big time chasing galaxies in Bootes.

Real good night, thoroughly excellent company.
DDK


Observing Reports Observing Sites GSSP 2010, July 10 - 14
Frosty Acres Ranch
Adin, CA

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